Family research files

[AckZel]

Just got my family research files from my mother. Damn! Goes down to 1300's and not a single scot!

;)

[auld argonian]

Come on...there has to be one in there somewhere...

Actually, one of the things that a Public Broadcasting history series about the true history of Ireland taught me is that it's difficult to be a true "pure bred" anything when you're basically of Celtic origins...there were so many invasions and raids and takeovers and traveling traders and mass exiles and such like that it's all (no pun intended) relative.

I've got the red hair...Scots, Danes or Vikings? I was always brought up with the tale that the "Black Irish" were the offspring of the survivors of the Spanish Armada who washed up in Ireland after that little disagreement that they had with the English Fleet. (Thus, the story goes, the Costello's in my mom's family were descended from the Castillo's who appeared as if by magic and contributed to the gene pool.) It becomes a sort of nature/nurture thing after a while...but geneology doesn't seem to have much to do with why some gravitate to the kilt...

There was once an advertising campaign for Playboy Magazine the asked, "What kind of man reads Playboy?"...well what kind of man takes to kilts? There has to be a lot of reasons...not the least of which is, as far as I'm concerned, it just looks damn good on me...but, in essence, I think that it has more to do with who you are and not necessarily where you come from.

Party on, party hard and party kilted!

best

AA

[davedove]

Just got my family research files from my mother. Damn! Goes down to 1300's and not a single scot!

;)

Whether there is a Scot or not, that's still pretty impressive. So far, I've only been able to trace my mother's side back to the early to mid-1800's. On my father's side I can go back to the early 1700's with some possible links back farther, but that's it.

If you can't find a verifiable Scot, "adopt" a clan.;)

[Schultz]

Back to the 1300s! Wow! Very impressive!

Thankfully, my uncle did most of the work for my father's family, tracing most of the family back to Bavaria in the early 19th century. Nothing short of going to Germany (or paying someone, but where's the fun in that?) will lengthen that trail. I've inherited the task to continue his work, so it's off to Bavaria with me at some point in the very near future. The McDevitt trail, however, ends in Pittsburgh in the middle of the 19th century. That's the one I'm most interested in, for obvious reasons

I just have to get up to da Burgh and spend a few days haunting the McKeesport Historical Society to see if I can come up with anything more.

[bubba]

Schultz, the trouble withtrying to trace German genealogy is so many records were destroyed during WW II. In far too many cases the records simply no longer exist.

[Schultz]

bubba,

I know. It's a shame. From what I've gathered from other people who've done similar research, church records are the way to go, and the only way you're going to get anywhere with that is to actually visit the towns and villages. Not many churches have the resources to index their records in a database!

[AckZel]

There is only one line which my mom was able to get down to 1393 and that probably is not absolutely accurate information. Most of the lines in my family ends around 1600's. That work has been fairly easy because Finnish protestant church has kept very accurate list of population from 1600's. Some books have burn or taken other damage which makes up most of the problems.

[bubba]

church records are the way to go, and the only way you're going to get anywhere with that is to actually visit the towns and villages. Not many churches have the resources to index their records in a database!

Adding to the problem there is if the churches were anywhere near an industrial city they likely no longer exist. One of my Dads cousins tried. The branch of the family was from around Hamburg and records were completely lost in the bombings.

[jjoseph]

Just got my family research files from my mother. Damn! Goes down to 1300's and not a single scot!

;)

This is NOT meant to disparage the honor of anyone in your family, but to think that the records of some seven hundred years took into account every milkman, stable boy, viking or even adoption is quite a stretch. EVERY family has stray branches, usually unaccounted for among official records. Tracing back a family tree tells the story of the family's power and politics, but not necessarily the family's biology. If your family was in northern or western Europe or even in a city in eastern Europe for seven hundred years, it DOES have a Scot lurking in there somewhere. Be of good cheer!